Medieval Waterwheels

Timeline

1. c. 710–740Seine–Thames river basins · Seine River basinMonasteries and lords in the Frankish kingdom and Anglo-Saxon England began building dams and channels on rivers, installing horizontal or vertical water wheels to drive millstones, replacing manual and animal-powered grinding and significantly increasing grain processing capacity.
2. c. 750–775St. Gall–Reims monastery region · Northern Alpine foothillsBenedictine and other monasteries used waterwheels for multi-purpose workshops including mills, fulling, and iron hammering, forming self-sufficient hydraulic production units; the Church and feudal lords' rights to riverside mills became an important economic resource.
3. c. 780–800Heartland of the Carolingian Empire · Carolingian EmpireVertical undershot water wheels were widely adopted in grain mills, and improvements in transmission gears and cam mechanisms increased the power of individual units; waterwheel technology became the infrastructure of the feudal manorial economy, laying the power foundation for the subsequent expansion of medieval urban handicrafts.